Mass media construction of suicide problems in contemporary Japan : Asahi Shimbun suicide news reports, 1998--2008

Abstract

This thesis examines contemporary Japanese mass media's reporting practices on suicide and the construction of suicide problems over certain suicide categories, particularly in terms of moral panic. By analyzing 2263 suicide news articles of the Japanese national newspaper Asahi Shimbun from 1998 to 2008, this thesis discovers that unusual suicide methods and reasons, suicide by minor age groups by unusual occupations were over-reported. Among these categories, student bully suicide was constructed into a moral panic through the over-reporting practices of the Japanese mass media. The central problem in the moral panic over student bully suicide was not the act of student suicide itself, but the irresponsible or unacceptable conduct by the Japanese school and educational system who tried to conceal the existence of bullying. Finally, there were imitation suicides among students during the moral panic which was also encouraged by the Japanese mass media's over-reporting practices of student bully suicide.